Former PIAA state champion and Penn State NCAA national champion Quentin Wright was officially named the new Golden Eagles head wrestling coach at the regular monthly meeting of the TASD School Board on Tuesday, May 11.

Wright learned from the best at Penn State and hopes to bring the same kind of tradition to the high school level.

¨Pretty much everything [PSU Head Coach Cael Sanderson] does at the college level is what I want I want to bring to the Tyrone program. I got to see what he did at the start of his career to make it as dominant as it is today, and those are the same things I [want to do here],¨ said Wright.

As a multiple PIAA and NCAA champion, Wright is well-known nationally in the wrestling community, but he also has local roots. Wright grew up in Pennsylvania Furnace less than one mile from the Tyrone Area School District border on an 87-acre farm.

When Wright was in eighth grade, his family moved to the Bald Eagle Area School District. In high school, Wright was a four-time district champion, four-time regional champion, a state runner-up, and two-time state champion. Wright went a combined 80-0 in his junior and senior years at Bald Eagle.

Wright’s outstanding high school career earned him a division one scholarship to Penn State University. He was recruited to PSU by former head coach Troy Sunderland and was one of current head coach Cael Sanderson first national champions at Penn State.

After graduating from Penn State, Wright settled back in central Pennsylvania near his family roots. He currently lives in the Tyrone Area School District with his wife and two boys, so coaching the high school program in his adopted hometown is a perfect fit.

“I’ve been coming over to Tyrone since I was a little kid,” said Wright, “I love this little town.”

Coach Wright will take over for former head coach and fellow PIAA state champion Terry Tate, who recently stepped down to devote more time to his full-time career.

After a few years where Tyrone was struggling to get athletes involved in the wrestling program, Tate successfully increased interest in wrestling and helped lay down the foundation for a fine program. He was excited to learn who his successor will be and confident that the program will continue to improve with Wright at the helm.

“I think [Coach Wright] will bring a vast knowledge of the sport and he is a great teacher. He will hold the wrestlers to a very high standard and I think that he will take the program to the next level,” said Tate.

Wright has coached many successful wrestlers at his private training center, including Bellefonte’s Ethan Rossman, Philipsburg’s Parker Moore, and Kolby Franklin from Wyoming Seminary.

Tyrone’s current wrestlers are ready to wrestle under Coach Wright’s leadership.

¨I am really excited to have the opportunity to be coached by such an outstanding wrestler. I feel like Coach Tate made us a good team, and I feel like Coach Wright is going to make us an amazing team,” said Tyrone junior Ashton Sipes.

Wright is ready to hit the ground running, with his priorities being to round out his coaching staff and making some physical improvements to the wrestling room.

“It’s going to be a learning experience but the goal is always the same: to be the best that we can be. I don’t know how good that is. We’ve got to find out,” said Wright.

The Tyrone wrestling community is excited and ready to find out how far the program can go under Wright’s leadership.

To watch the podcast interview click the YouTube video above the story, or listen to it by clicking the podcast link below.